What was vital for Manchester United was that Marcus Rashford left this summer in some capacity as he is a negative influence in the dressing room. Getting his full wages covered by Barcelona for a year is a good outcome. Maybe not the ideal one, but a good one none the less.
A combination of his wages and his own delusions of grandeur always meant a full sale would be difficult this summer. There are very few teams that could afford to sign him on his current wages and even fewer that are willing to take the gamble on him. He was always the back up plan for Barcelona to Nico Williams, only once that deal fell through did they actually consider making a move for him.
Hopefully, he does well there and they take up the option for him next summer. If not, then hopefully he does well enough that someone else will look to buy him outright. If he flops, while it might puncture his ego enough for him to consider a move to a less iconic club, it will also make it harder for us to sell him as other clubs will have seen him flop at Barcelona after having issues here with us. Making the chances of him being a success for any prospective club more of a long shot.
We are also making judgements on this deal without all the information. All we know is that his full wages are being covered, and that Barcelona have an option to buy next summer. We don’t know how much that option is set at, and we don’t know if there is a loan fee payable, either immediately, or next summer if they decide not to take up the option.
The reality is that we are trying to sell a lot of players who have not been successful for one reason or another. It’s much harder to get someone to buy a player on a downward trajectory, most clubs are looking to sign players who are on the up and doing well. Add to that the wages our players are on, and it makes it even harder to find clubs to take them.
We will have to wheel and deal and come up with some creative solutions to get these players off the books. The good thing is at least now the club is looking to move these players on rather than hoard them for their book value, while they siphon money out the club in wages, providing little to no impact in the team, only a negative influence in the dressing room as they sulk.
It’s not surprising that there was an upturn in performances (if not results) once players like Rashford and Antony left in January. Better application from players, they worked harder and they seemed to buy into the manager’s tactics more.
We absolutely cannot properly start to get back on the right track until we get all of the bad influences out of the club. When cutting out cancer if you even leave just a little bit behind then it spreads and turns the surrounding healthy cells cancerous.
Every single negative influence in that dressing room needs to be out the door one way or another this summer, and for them to never return. If that means we have to send Rashford out on loan every year until his contract expires, then so be it.
We have to put the team above everyone else. You could be the best player in the world, but if you are a negative impact on the team then there’s the door. No manager will even have a chance of succeeding until they have the right environment to build in.
That is why who leaves this summer is far more important than who joins. Get the right ones out the door then even if we don’t sign the best players, at least we will have a chance for the manager to actually start rebuilding the team. Maybe it’ll take a year or two longer if we aren’t able to sign players with enough talent this summer, but if we get ones in with the right attitude, then we will be a better team than last season, even if on paper it looks like we have less quality.